Conditions on Incline Lake Peak

Some periods of sunshine allowed surface softening on the sun exposed southerly aspects up to the top of Incline Lake Peak today. At 9480 ft. on a SE aspect about 1 inch of soft snow existed on above a supportable melt-freeze crust at 12:30 pm. At 8400 ft. on sun exposed slopes 3-4 inches of wet surface snow existed at noon. Conditions on Incline Lake Peak today indicated a weak refreeze last night. On the more shaded northerly aspects, the snow surface remained cold above 9000 ft. Sheltered areas at these upper elevations held small patches of soft surface snow, but areas of scoured surfaces, wind crusts, and other breakable crusts comprised the majority of surface conditions. Shaded northerly aspects below 9000 ft. held wet sticky surface snow and a few very small pinwheels (6-12 inches in diameter) did result from ski cuts on steep test slopes.  Extended column tests on the nascent weak layer near the buried and eroding rain crust still indicated that fracture propagation remains unlikely.

Photo 1: 1 inch of soft melt-freeze snow on a SE aspect at 9480 ft. at 12:30 pm.

Photo 2: 3 inches of soft melt freeze snow on a SE aspect at 8400 ft. at 12:00 pm.

Photo 3: Variable firm conditions on a exposed NE facing slope near the summit of Incline Lake Peak

Photo 4: Cloud cover and some showers looking towards the south and west from the summit of Incline Lake Peak